Paul Russell The Last Seed Keeper (The Last Seed Keeper #1), EK Books, March 2025, 232 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 978922539939
This story, the first of a trilogy, introduces the reader to the world as we no longer know it. Ivy is a Groundling, living in the barren Piles in the Pickings, where every day is a struggle for existence, scrabbling for anything which can be traded for basic food, now only found as wrapped bars. She has rigged up a system to filter water so she doesn’t have to spend her precious credits on water.
Skyler lives a privileged life in a luxury pod in the clouds where life is controlled by technology. She is rebelling against all the expectations being made of her. She doesn’t want to post about hair and beauty but instead is interested in history, plants and living creatures which she doesn’t see in the above-clouds environment.
When Ivy sells a bean from the plant she has nurtured, she sets in motion a change in the world dynamics. The girls meet, changing the paths allocated to them, and meeting the challenges thrown at them. Sklyer learns things about her family which she never knew, or suspected, and Ivy realizes how important her discovery is to everyone. Of course, those in power don’t agree with the changes and fractures appear.
This is an interesting dystopian world, created for middle school readers. The girls as characters are well developed and very believable. The include environmental destruction, friendship, secrecy, corruption and holding on to hope in the darkest of places. Teaching notes are available on the publisher’s website.
It will be interesting to learn the developments in New Sanctuary due in September.
Reviewed by Maureen Mann
